Teaching in inclusive schools. Do the demands of inclusive schools cause stress?

ABSTRACT

The present study contributes to the often heated discourse and the diverse research findings towards the demands of inclusion and teachers’ perceived stress. We used a questionnaire to interview n = 471 teachers in 49 inclusive schools. The study used cluster analysis to identify four distinct teacher-groups who differed in their appraisals of the implementation of specific dimensions of inclusion such as adaptive instruction, using individual education plans, school concept development, in-school and extra-curricular cooperation. The groups were compared regarding the perceived stress teachers reported. Many studies reported in the extant literature have investigated teachers not working in inclusive contexts asking them to speculate about how that might be; these studies only deal with expectations and beliefs. Our study relies on the experiences of teachers working in inclusion contexts. Among these teachers, those who appraise the implementation of inclusion to the greatest extent reported the lowest stress experience. In contrast, teachers reporting inclusion being implemented only to a limited extent perceived the highest stress. Clusters mirror in-school teamwork as a significant dimension preventing from stress. Implications for improved practice focus on micro-contextual measures for individual schools, such as improving in-school teamwork and strengthening both school development processes and school leadership.

KEYWORDS:

• Adaptive instrcution
• inclusive schools
• in-school teamwork
• school development
• stress

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.